British Supermarkets!

LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM!

I've had the pleasure to visit the supermarket (not called grocery stores) twice since I got here.  I want to go back again it's so much fun.  I just stroll up and down the aisles wandering aimlessly looking to see what the foods are.  I am amazed at how many foods are pre-prepared over here.  They have these cute asian meals that are in some plastic container and are 2 GBP.  Not bad for 2 people.  Then they have these cute Ceasar salad kits - 1 GBP.  Suitable for 1 person.  I then move to the stirfry section where I can get 2 large bags of fresh never frozen veggies (all sorts, asian style or regular) and 1 sauce kit for 2.50 GBP.  And the best part of all these meals is they are fresh and pretty much easy to make and aren't too expensive.

Now since I always claim to be on a diet - they also cater to these needs.  Not as well as the US does -- but it's still pretty good.  They are HUGE on the Weight Watchers foods over here.  Everything WW brand has the points on it.  They have so many different WW branded foods it's amazing.  Now these are a little more expensive, but if you look in the same general area you'll find the store brands ''WW version'' of the same meal for LESS!  How awesome.  I ended up getting these carrot cake individual snack cakes - 6 of them in a package for 1 GBP!  That is so cheap and they have 100 kal.

Now lets talk about hot chocolate and coffee for a bit.  They have a huge aisle dedicated to this!  I absolutely spent 15 minutes just gazing at all the different flavours and brands.  I got hooked on these 40 kal packets of hot cocoa as they were placed in my service apartment.  It gets so cold in here sometimes (the heaters here suck by the way) that I just want to make something warm all the time.  I was on a mission to find more of these hot cocoa packets and I did!  And again -- very cheap!  I got these fancy Belgium style favours 5 for 1 GBP.  Didn't think it was too bad for these fancy hazelnut and white chocolate kinds.

Last but not least my absolutely favourite aisle is the -- wait for it -- guess -- THE YOGURT AISLE!  I cannot believe there is an entire aisle and 2 end caps dedicated to just yogurt!  No joke - there is nothing but yogurt in this aisle.  So I start at the beginning and decide 'what kind should I get'.  I first grabbed the off-brand back - 6 of them for 98pence.  Very cheap.  Then -- I stepped back and saw the WW brand was on sale.  Ok so I got those instead.  The flavours are white chocolate pinapple, and something else that I've never even heard of.  Then I wanted to try the greek styled yogurts.  Never seen Rubarb flavoured yogurt - so Im going to give that a spin.  Last but not least I'm happy to announce that the UK has Dannon Activia!  YES!  Its a bit more expensive over here - probably about $1.00 more for an 8 pack, but it's worth it.  They even have the low fat ones with only 70 kals in them.  When I go back next - I'm going to try another brand of yogurt and every time I go back another brand and another.  There are so many to choose from - I cannot wait.

Trains in UK

Well after today - I keep getting more and more disappointed with the train services in the UK.  Today I went to Aldershot to walk around the area and get a feel for if I really wanted to live there.  First of all - it took me about 40 minutes to get from a city that is literally 4 miles away from Aldershot.  This is when the train was running on time.  On the way back I sat on the layover stop for over an hour waiting for a train.  Thus total journey back to Farn was over 1 hr 20 minutes.  I could of walked 4 miles in less time!

Bloody Hell!

Not sure how I feel about Aldershot.  The city seems to be a little 'run-down' or 'lower class citizens' that live there.  Nothing against anyone who lives there - but I just want to ensure that myself being single and alone here is SAFE!  The city actually used to be an old Military Base which I found rather interesting.  Although I still cherish the 1 bedroom stable house that I found on Friday.  Gosh I just don't know what to do!!  I still really like Guildford though too and am now wondering if I would feel safer there.  Guildford has a train with no layovers straight to Aldershot. Providing it's on time - total train time should be no more then 20 minutes.  This is doable I suppose!  I need to talk to co-workers tomorrow so that I can make a decision.

Now that I was sitting outside for over an hour waiting for a train my toes and fingers can hardly warm up.  It's bloody cold outside probably just above freezing, cold, wet, and rainy!  EWW!  I just want to snuggle up and take a nap -- opps cannot do that because I need to adjust to time zone still.

Tomorrow is the first day at the office!
This place is close to where I'm considering living.....maybe possible reason not to live here

 Sign - Welcome to Aldershot (very cute)

 Aldershot has a nice church!

Stonehenge & Salisbury

Today I adventured west into Salisbury and took a tour to Stonehenge.  Stonehenge was very remarkable and had a lot of history involved!  I was really in awe at how well preserved it was.  It was a bit rainy -- so one thing to note; NEVER FORGET YOUR UMBRELLA.  I didn't - but there were these 4 Japanese girls who did!  Sorry ladies.

After Stonehenge, I took the bus back to Salisbury where I got in by train from Farnbourogh.  This medieval town was AMAZING.  One of my favorite.  It had cute landscaping and above all an awesome medieval cathedral that I fell in love with.  The cathedral is the tallest in the UK and 4th tallest in the world; next to the gothic cathedral in Koln (another one of my favorites).  I took an abundance of pictures of this place but it was well worth it.

I then experienced my first of MANY train delays of about 30 minutes which then caused me to wait an additional 45 minutes on my train change.  UGH!  Was only supposed to be an hour and 5 minute train back and forth and both there and back was almost 2 hours plus.  Not impressed so far with the UK train system (although I fully understand how it works at least unlike England residents who are asking me in their British Accents where the train to Waterloo is)  I must look like a local already!!

I bought a train pass for Farnbourogh to Aldershot - for the next 30 days.  We'll see how this goes.  First day of work is Tuesday!

Average day in London

Today was a GREAT day.  I first started out by finding the closest ''supermarket'' (not called grocery store here folks) near my place.  Come to find out it was in a MALL - and super close.  I really liked it -- maybe even better then Meijer!  It is 24/7 - how super cool.  I managed to get enough items for the week hopefully and only rack up a 20 pound bill.  I try to be a smart shopper!  After that I opened up my British bank account - YES!

I walked back and made lunch and then set off for the city (if you say city people think you're headed for the financial district of London, so let me re-phrase myself) London and around that is.  I bought a 16-25 travelers railcard (so thankful I'm still considered young and can take advantage of this 1/3 discount on train fares) which is only 26 GBP.  I bought a RT ticket from Farnbourogh to London Victoria Station.  Victoria is closest to the Buckingham Palace so that is where I started my journey.  I walked around the entire palace and then up towards Trafalgar Square.  From the square, I walked to the River Thames right across from the London Eye.  From the Eye I went and visted Big Ben aka houses of parliment.  I walked around the entire parliment building and then some.  I then visited the Westminister Abbey.  I never got to see the Abbey when I was in London last - so I was quite excited to visit it for the first time.  Note that none of these things were open - so this was all just outside viewings (good excuse to go back I presume).  From the Abbey I walked ALL THE WAY to Tower of London and the Tower Bridge.  By the time I got there it was already dark.  It was a quick trip in the city of London - I left around 1pm, got there around 3 (train maintenance issues on the wkd); walked around until 7 and got home around 8.  My feet are kind of sore from the none-stop walking.  I have to get used to this again.

I would like to shout out to the guy in the rail station that helped me when I had a question.  Not only did he help me -- he made me feel like I was completely stupid by explaining the entire ''Zones'' to me on the tube map.  Hello sir - I'm a frequent traveler and do not need you to circle with your fingers what is clearly stated as zone 1, zone 2, and zone 3.  Yes I get that -- just tell me where the rail station is and stop telling me that I'm not at an underground station right now!  LOL!  At least he helped me after the 10 minute discussion.  I'm sure that he was only thinking ''Stupid American Tourist'' -- I would like to say ''I LIVE HERE BUDDY''

Here are some pics from today's adventures:

Tower of London

 Buckingham Palace (The flag flying represents that the Queen is home)

 Trafalgar Square

 Big Ben (Houses of Parliment)

 Westminister Abbey

 Big Ben with Amanda

 The London Eye by Sunset

 Tower Bridge

 

First Day in UK!

Today has been a really long day to say the least!  I landed into London Heathrow around 7am this morning local time.  From there I went through customs very easily and collected my 4 checked bags.  I aimlessly wondered for my van driver and then I saw my name on a card!  I found him and he took my overflowing cart of suitcases away from me and I had some relief!  We hopped into his van and headed south for Farnborough.  The drive only took about 30 minutes which was great.  I called the service apartment place so they could bring me my keys.  They were a little late so I was sitting outside the place like a long lost puppy with my 6 bags waiting for them to give me my keys.  I finally got in and much to my surprise there was a LIFT!  Thank goodness because I'm on the top (5th) floor.  That would of been a lot of suitcase lugging.  It still took me a while to get those bags all up here even with the lift -- and to think I have to leave again in 30 days, BOO!

As I walked into the place I was amazed at how nice and LARGE it was.  Everyone tells me that places are smaller in europe -- well not my service apartment!  I feel like I'm getting the royal treatment!  Well I unpacked a  few things and took a shower from my long flight.  Not nearly enough time passed when it was already time for Jane my homesearch lady took me around Guildford.  She is a super sweet lady and took me out for ''tea'' and coffee and lunch!

I ended up seeing about 8 flats in Guildford today.  3 of them I really liked - 2 of these are pretty close to the station.  I cannot believe how small some of these places were -- I mean I can handle small -- but some of them were just like you walk into the bedroom and you're on your bed practically.  One of the letting agents heard that I was actually going to be working in Aldershot and he suggested this brilliant place to Jane.  Jane told me about it and I said sure we should check it out -- plus I would get a chance to see where I'm actually going to be working.  We debated if we should go and see it since I wasn't particularily keen on living in Aldershot - but we gave it a go.  Upon arrival we knew that it was an old horse stable turned into a brand new flat.  This place was just marvelous!  All brand new everything and spiral staircase to bedroom and bath. The kitchen is amazing with all new appliances.  There is also a patio!  This is definently my top one -- now I just need to decide where I want to live!

Jane took me back to my temp apartment in Farn and I kind of realized I didn't have any food.  I remember driving past this mall area - so I walked up there about 1.5 miles.  I knew for sure there was a supermarket there -- wrong!  So being as hungry as I was in the dark and no food that I brought with me (no SPACE in my bags) I ended up eating at McDonalds.  I know -- the last place I should be eating at for my first dinner in UK is McDonalds.  So sad really....  I now know where the supermarket is - and I will go there tomorrow after opening my bank account.  This just so happens to e 1.5 miles in the complete opposite direction - NICE!

British words heard ALOT today:  Bloody Hell (Jane had road rage), Brillant & Marvelous (Got these after every flat I looked at)

Here is a pic of my bedroom in my super cool place

Last Night in the States!

I am accompanied by my cousin, aunt, and mom tonight as we watch TV and chat.  They are very sad to see me go - which I'm not sure why it really matters since I'm already away from home anyways.  I just think that the fact of me being across an ocean is the most scary for them.

I have everything packed up now.  The whole 4 bags didn't get down to 3 - but I was able to ensure that they were all under 50 lbs.

Well as I spend my final hours in everything that is so comforting to me - I have very mixed feelings.  I know that I will have an excellent job and nothing to worry about in regards to that; but will I make friends, will my travel to work everyday be easy, and will I be able to save money while over there are all fears of mine.

4 Bags Plus

2 days until departure!  I cannot believe it.  Getting a little nervous maybe?  Well I got the final pack down I would like to call it.  I only had 2 bags packed this afternoon and I got them weighed and one was 57 lbs and the other was 62 lbs.  Well that called for some ''re-organizing'' of packing.  So I did that and now I'm going to weigh all 4 of them.  I cannot believe that I still have this much stuff especially after I took out so much stuff already.

My dog looks like he's happy to see me leave!  I know he's not.

Aunt Doba!

Two of my very good friends now have babies!  Wow - this is hard to believe and I cannot imagine at my age and at my point in my life to have a baby.  It was a fun day at home with 4 of my very good friends.  A lot of baby holding and baby talk.  It's so hard to believe how much our lives are different and I respect my friends for all of the things they have accomplished in regards to marriage and family.  It's just hard to believe that us 5 grew up in the same town, went to the same highschool and are still very good friends although our lives are so DIFFERENT.  I am the business career woman traveling the globe and they are happy at home with their families.  It's crazy - but am so happy for them and the lives that they have chosen which make them happy.  Below is a picture of my best friend Katie's new born baby girl -- Evelyn Olivia born on Jan. 30, 2011.  She loves her Aunt Doba :-)

Harry Potter

I finally had the privilege to watch Harry Potter 1 & 2.  I have never seen any of them!  A lot of people find this hard to believe I guess.  The movies were a little crazy - but my goodness they are hard to understand.  Like, how are these movies and books made for KIDS!  They must have huge imaginations or something.  Nevertheless, I got to hear British voices and slang and see the Hogwarts Castle.  4 Days until departure -- I still need to pack!

Home in MI for a few days

Well yesterday could of been a little less more of a difficult day saying goodbye to everyone!  I guess you really realize that you become attached to the people you work with since they are usually the people that you see the most.  So anyways, I wanted to leave work yesterday right after my going away lunch - but I ended up not leaving until 3pm.  Too many goodbyes!  I went home to load up my last load of belongings into my car and drop off the keys to my now empty apartment that I'm paying rent on - yay! 

After this - I went out to the 'Wicked Hop' for some happy hour drinks with probably two of my favorite co-workers.  These two were both interns for me this summer; one now is working full time in a different department and the other will start full time in July.  So exciting as they are both very talented and I will miss them a lot.  I hope that they can come visit me in London!  Stay in touch J's! 

I then started the 6-7 hour journey back to the thumb of the mitten.  Well Chicago traffic sucked and I was really hoping that it would have been cleared up by the time I hit it which was 730pm.  I finally got through IL, and IN and was SO sleepy.  I took a 3 hour nap somewhere in MI -- cannot remember where.  Woke up and continued driving to home.  Got back around 530am.  Long drive when you're driving alone. 

Now it's time to go and unpack my car and then repack the items I want to bring with me to London!!!  Continue to wish me luck on getting my suitcases from 4 to 3.  Only 5 more days LEFT!

Last Day of Working in Milwaukee

I have to say -- I'm a little torn!!  I'm leaving behind some great people and of course ALOT of work.  I've been waiting so long for this day to come and now that it's here -- I don't have too much to say.  I hope that I can come back here for business travel during my 2 year assignment otherwise I will have no reason to visit.  Everything that is so comforting about my current job is doing a 180 when I think about my new job.  The work will be similar - but very challenging and on a whole new level.  I'm a little excited to leave the 60-70 hour work weeks behind (the type that Americas become so accustomed too because we LIVE TO WORK) and hopefully not have to work much more then 50 now and WORK TO LIVE.  I mean we'll see right -- I am moving up the ladder now and my work loads aren't going to get any smaller in the corporate LIFE!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Packing - this is so not fun

Well I've had enough of packing.  If most of you can recall - I just moved back downtown from a northern suburb of Milwaukee only 2 months ago and now I'm doing it again.  Not only am I just packing up my belongings for a long term storage -- I also have to figure out what I want to bring with me for the next two years.  So far as previously stated I have 4 big suitcases - similar to the picture below.  However, not all of my stuff is even packed in these suitcases.  No big deal right, I know that I can bring extra luggage with me and it will be included in my relocation package.  I called Delta to understand the baggage limits and for some reason on flights to Europe you are only allowed one checked bag.  The 2nd is $50 and the 3rd is $200 and the 4th is $200.  Now granted this is SO MUCH CHEAPER then shipping luggage, I still feel guilty.  I really need to get 3 bags!  I am disappointed in Delta right now as well!  Any way to make money.  Not only do these extra bags cost so much extra -- they will tack on an additional $75 per bag if they are over 50lbs....HA!  I really have to figure out what I'm going to do this weekend.

Suitcase (1 of 4)

British Visa - 7 days to go

Well today - as expected; I was on the FedEx website non-stop and kept refreshing until I saw the ''Delivered'' notification at my work.  As soon as I saw that - I headed down on an adventure with a co-worker of mine to receive my package (otherwise it would have taken 4-6 hours to get to my personal mailbox).  I immediately ripped open the packed to find my passport with the new UK Visa stamp!  It's very pretty and different looking then other visas I have in my passport.  It's affixed to my newly added passport pages too.  I'm so excited!  WOW.  I can hardly wait and focus at work now.  All is well and there should be no difficulties in getting to my new home -- AHHH SIGH SIGH***.

Time to book some more weekend trips!

Preparation Mode

Welcome to my first ever blog.  I got inspired by my friend Diane who shares of a lot of similar traits with myself...one being - THE LOVE FOR TRAVEL.  It is now exactly 8 days before my departure to the United Kingdom.  I will be relocating there for work where I will be working in my company's business units European HQ.

As I'm getting ready - I'm realizing there is SO MUCH to do in order to prepare myself for approximately 2 years away from everything that is so comforting to me.  The idea of not having a car for 2 years might be the most scary fact.  I love to drive and feel like it's very important to do something quick (like grocery shopping).  This is the American in me I suppose - something that I must learn to live without.  Since the 8 day leaving mark - I have pretty much packed up my entire apartment and sent off a full-size truck's worth of belonging with my parents who drove to Milwaukee last weekend to help me move.  I have very loving parents who are willing to store my stuff :).  So far, I have packed up 4 large suitcases and 1 large carry-on worth of stuff.  I would like to get this down to 3 (wish me luck).  This should be no problem since I'm the type of person who can travel for a week with a backpack full of stuff.  Just give me enough room for my Nikon D90 and I'll be the happiest traveler.

Since getting the notification of my relocation - I have been anxiously awaiting to book flights for weekend trips upon arrival to the UK.  I have been spending countless hours online in the evenings looking up all of the cheap flights that fly out of London.  There are so many websites and resources that I have found to be of great help.  My favorite cheap airlines so far are the famous RYANAIR and EasyJet.  A few nights ago I booked my first European weekend travel to Stockholm, Sweden for March 25th and tonight I just booked a weekend trip for March 18th to Oslo, Norway.  So excited to add two more countries to my LIST!  I have never traveled to Scandinavia and I'm sure that it will be very chilly in March (nothing I'm not used to in the windy city of Milwaukee).  A word of caution to anyone using Ryanair though - watch out for hidden fees and shadyness as I would like to say.  All in all though, they are CHEAP and I will be happy that they exist for my 2 year stint in 'old country'.

As some of you may know - this isn't my first time to Europe; in fact it's my 4th trip.  As of today, I have  been to these countries in Europe:  UK, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Czech Republic, and Hungary.  I feel like I know how the European goofy systems work from my extensive travels and summer of studying abroad in 2007, but I still find myself learning.  More to come on crazy facts of living abroad.

Tomorrow I'm getting back my baby.  What is my baby?  Well actually I have two babies - 1) My Nikon D90 and 2) My Passport with the newly received United Kingdom work authorization visa or ''cool looking sticker''.  I cannot wait to have it in my hands and will be anxiously awaiting the FedEx delivery man's drop-off.  I might go to the shipping and receiving dock first thing in the morning to get it (amongst all the packages that my building that consists of over 2,000 employees gets).  They will think I'm crazy -- I know.

Friday is my last day of work here in Milwaukee (2 more days).  I moved to WI a little over 2 years ago.  This isn't my home -- but I have made it my home away from home over the last 2 years.  I don't have any ties to this city what so ever; so I'm totally fine with leaving and am looking forward to probably coming back here in 2 more years.  I will miss my downtown living and downtown working life and most importantly of all some of the people I work with.  I have a good reputation with my team and will miss their company and laughs and daily chats.  Most of all I will miss my intern and all of her help and the good management and leaders I have had which have made this expat assignment possible!!  Thank you to all!  I am having a going away lunch on Friday where I can see everyone and say my good-byes.  I'm a little sad now thinking about it